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Gooblings
Gooblings are a diminutive race of beings hailing from Ogram known for their sub-par intelligence but gentle and mystical qualities. They are not considered by most to be a true race like the Orcs that they share the continent with, being much less sapient and intellectual beings than any Race of Man or Myth. Their speech is simple and broken as they naturally communicate more through body language among their own kind. While they are mildly civilized they are far behind most beings in technology and have no written language at all. Having been taken in by the Orcs and looked after they have picked up basic common words and some architectural advances. Appearance Gooblings are quite small, being only around one foot in height on average but having very hefty and wide frames. All of these strange little beings are of varying overweight builds, though many of their other features have a wider spectrum of deviation. The bodies of Gooblings are covered in a fine and soft fuzz which comes in a multitude of different colors, typically through ranges of green, brown and gray, small tufts of longer hair on the top of the head, in front of the ears and on males sometimes the chin are also common. Their expressive eyes are typically one of their most notable traits as they are often likened in appearance to small rounded gemstones of brilliant hues. The limbs of Gooblings are small and round, their fingers tiny and their clawed toes only somewhat larger, having four fingers and a thumb on each hand and four toes per foot. They also possess short stubby tails and long roundly pointed ears which can be angled anywhere from straight out to the sides to more upwardly pointing depending on the individual. Being omnivores Gooblings have teeth similar to those of humans in their seemingly small mouths, which are actually capable of opening wider than one would guess as their cheeks and lips are quite pliant. Traits & Abilities Gooblings are a very magically inclined people, having little in the way of strength, speed or other traits that would have seen them through the many untold generations in Ograms harsh environment. Capable of adapting quite well to temperatures both high and low they are small and surprisingly durable. Well acclimated to their typical craggy homeland in and near mountains they are tenacious climbers, suitable burrowers and steady if slow foragers. Though they are certainly not so powerful nor intelligent as Races of Myth they possess similar innate magic of a much lesser strength, with the exception of magics which heal and invigorate at which they excel. Though they are slow Gooblings use their small size and some of their natural magical talent to help them evade detection when the need arises, but in safe environments they do not tend to make any attempt at stealthy behavior. Beyond this whether through some magic or simply their adorable appearances most creatures find it difficult to bring themselves to actually attack them. Gooblings are omnivorous and sate themselves on a diet of fruits and nuts as well as occasional small wildlife such as fish, rabbit and squirrel though they are not particularly skilled hunters and typically snare elderly game or else stick to fishing and gathering. Gooblings live for very lengthy spans of time, usually well into several hundred years. Because of this and their ambling natures however they do not tend to produce very many children in any given year and indeed often many years will pass in a village with no births at all. Births in fact are instead hatchings as perhaps strangely despite their fuzzy bodies Gooblings are hatched from eggs. Unlike many creatures born from eggs however Gooblings almost never have more than one egg at a time. These eggs are almost completely spherical and an inch and a half in diameter when laid, their shells appearing course and almost scaley in jewel tones that make them appear almost like rough gems. Mother Gooblings tuck these eggs into pouches in their big bellies that are hardly even distinguishable from the normal folds, for three months they carry the eggs in this way, here the shells absorb essential nutrients from the oils produced in the small pouches and will actually begin to grow larger. By the end of this period the egg will have grown to roughly the size of a tennis ball though more oblong than round now, the scaled texture spreading apart to expose the soft leathery shell now speckled with the shimmering gem-like scales. After these months of carriage most gooblings keep their egg safe in their home where it will take another several months before hatching, and though they do not grow any larger the scales will begin to absorb into the softer exterior. Baby gooblings are hairless and as rotund and wrinkly as one would expect of their kind, their fuzz growing in over the course of the first month after they emerge from their egg. Their eyes are closed for the first week after birth, but when opened they are noted to always be the same hue as the scales on the shell of their egg. History Culture & Lore Gooblings are a gentle and friendly if incredibly simple people. In fact many would hesitate to even call them people as they are not as advanced or intellectual as any of the true races of Thelania. Even so they do have a society and way of life that has been slightly advanced by the Orcs who often watch over them. These tiny folk live in small shelters clustered around their sacred Biddybompus trees at the feet of mountains. Though their homes are not so expansive as those of most civilizations they are well made and comfortable for the Gooblings who do not require much space nor the ornamental decorations and furnishings other races enjoy. For the most part Gooblings towns or villages are disconnected from one another, dealing with their own affairs and being managed in differing ways, some of these closer to their Orcish neighbors are ruled by miniature and simplified monarchies, most however simply go about their lives with no real leaders. The majority of Goobling lands are not very involved in the economy of other races and so do not typically use standard currencies but instead usually prefer trading their goods if there is a need. However because they dwell near the mountains some villages actually do some measure of mining, prying lose small precious stones which they highly value regardless of their cut or true worth. It has been suggested though never confirmed that one reason that they may become so fond of small precious stones is for the resemblance to their own eggs, though despite their simplicity they do seem to fully comprehend that these rocks are not babies. Most Gooblings do not wear clothing though accessories such as scarves, hats, ribbons and other small garments are sometimes seen, particularly among the royalty of the more 'civilized' towns. Armaments though somewhat rare are not unheard of either, tiny blades or blunt implements found mostly among those tasked with defense in more dangerous lands. Though they have no written language and speak in incomplete and elementary snippets of other tongues Gooblings do not do very much verbal communication among their own kind, relying more on gestures and general sounds to express themselves. They do however all have names which they take great pride in - and say frequently since they speak in the third person - doing their best to learn and pronounce the names of other people to the best of their abilities as well. Gooblings when speaking in fact entirely skip pronouns and refer to people only by their name and never as 'he', 'she' or 'you', articles too are almost always left out, for example if the Goobling Ooba wanted to say "It's dark, I'm scared" he would instead say this as "Dark, Ooba scared." Adverbs are rarely used by these tiny creatures either, instead they frequently use the same word twice in order to emphasize its importance, if trying to describe something as being very big they would simply call it big-big instead. The naming conventions of Gooblings are quite simple, being typically four to five letters long and two syllables with frequently repeating vowels and gentle sounding consonants. Some examples of Gooblings names include: Ooba, Oola, Boona, Loowa and Eeba. It is often difficult to distinguish male and female names apart and gooblings do not tend to take up surnames of any sort either. Trivia * Because of their somewhat strange and very innocent natures there are many odd rumors circulating about them, such as them rubbing their noses together to create children, which is of course untrue. * Never squeeze a Goobling. Gallery Goobling Old.png|An elderly male Goobling resting. (Boona) Goobling Female.png|An adult female Goobling. (Oola) Goobling Eating.png|A young adult Goobling eating a strip of jerky. (Ooba) Goobling Pair.png|A pair of Gooblings interacting. (Loowa & Eeba) Category:Fauna Category:Races